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Monday, April 09, 2012

This is the beginning of a crazy week for me. After lunch yesterday, LuAnn and the kids took off to visit family for a few days while the kids are out of school. If it weren't for the upcoming Spring Thing event this weekend, I'd be with them, but as it is, I'll be pulling together the last few things before students show up on Friday.

So naturally, I started out the week with an all nighter in our empty house watching Lord of the Rings with a couple of my students. One of them hadn't seen it yet, so we had to fix that right away! They both fell asleep sometime around 1:00 AM, just before Helm's Deep was occupied - so we finished this morning when I got home from a 6:30 prayer meeting. (Just a side note: "Mercy" is falling asleep at the youth minister's house while he's still awake - and being able to leave the next day with your eyebrows still intact! You guys can thank me later.)

The point of this post is actually to ask you to be praying for my preparation time this week. I'm pulling together thoughts that God has been bouncing my way for about 10 years into 4 messages, so there's way more content to pare down than a weekend's worth of attention span can handle. Distillation may not be my strongest attribute - I'd rather take a seed and extrapolate the potential branches. Please be praying that what is left when I'm done hacking away at the myriad of impulses etched on my gray matter would be only whatever God wants to use to penetrate the hearts of His people who gather this weekend.

With no family at home, and my weekly routine completely out the window, also pray that I'd stay focused enough to line up all the ducks - and relaxed enough to shoot them when the time comes. I'm not above losing large chunks of time to distraction, so I'd appreciate that not happening this week.

On a somewhat related note, I've been contacted twice in the last couple days regarding a request for an insurance quote for my '92 Volvo; they have my name and number right, but I've got no Volvo to insure. I'm hoping this is just a case of sloppy data entry, but just in case it's more of an ID theft issue, if you see me this week ask me for the super secret handshake just to make sure it's really me!

I realize this is rather late after the fact, and I meant to tell you that weekend but my group was in such a hurry to get out the door, (which is a crap excuse to not say something important to my brother I know, sorry)Anyways, I wanted to say that when you spoke that weekend I watched while the whole room settled down and even the kids in my group who don't have the greatest attention span even tracked with you for pretty much the entire message It was evident to me that when you spoke, you really had something to say, and it wasn't just coming from that gray matter of yours, but from the Spirit, and it was something we needed to hear. In the weeks since I've seen the effects of your message take root in my students and I know it penetrated deep enough to make an impact in my life as well. I'm extremely grateful to God to set such an awesome example in my life of what a Youth Pastor ought to look like, and I'm more than proud to call you my brother. I just wanted you to know that as God has been pulling me further in that direction I've realized more and more what amazing leadership He's set up in my life in my family and in my pastors here and one of those people has been you, and I'm thankful for you.These words are long overdue, and should come to you in a far better form than an internet comment, and they will, but I pray this little note is encouraging to you, and refreshes your spirit as you walk in the path God has shown you.